Video: 'The Beatles Tapes - George Harrison Interview Pt. 2 March 1969 David Wigg' (Mar. 4, 1969 at 1:48-4:32)
(Tuesday, March 4, 1969; 1:00-2:00 p.m. BST) — George Harrison of The Beatles was interviewed today by David Wigg at The Beatles’ Apple headquarters in London’s Savile Row for the Mar. 8 and Apr. 12, 1969, editions of the BBC radio show Scene And Heard.
GEORGE: “But the thing is that you can set a high standard and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a hit. You know, this is one thing. The market for hits is… you know, I just can’t figure it out. I know when the Beatles put out a single it’s a hit. But I don’t know if… sometimes I feel that if somebody else had put out the same thing but done in their way it mightn’t be a hit. I don’t know. It’s very difficult. I’ve really decided I haven’t got a clue what’s commercial and what isn’t. And that’s the problem, you know, trying to decide what is and what isn’t a single. I think the American idea is really good where they just put out an album and the stations over there, you know, they have a lot of independent stations, unlike Britain, you see. That’s a problem with Britain, you’ve got your good old BBC– full stop. You know, maybe Radio Luxembourg if the weather’s fine.”
“You know, this is the thing I don’t like. It’s the Monopolies Commission. Now if anybody, you know, Kodak, or somebody is cleaning up the market with film, the Monopolies Commission, the Government send them in there, and say you know, you’re not allowed to monopolize. Yet, when the Government’s monopolizing, who’s gonna send in, you know, this Commission to sort that one out. Britain in a way, you know, it cuts its own throat. Just from my experience of Britain. It’s, you know, it’s on every level. You know, from your tax right down into every little speck of business. The British Government’s policy seems to be, grab as much as you can now because maybe it’s only gonna last another six months. I know personally for me, there’s no point in me going out and doing a job, doing a show or doing a TV show or anything, you know. Because in Britain first of all they can’t afford to pay you. And whatever they do pay you is taxed so highly that it ends up that YOU owe THEM money.”
DAVID: (laughs)
GEORGE: “So, you know, why bother working? But if my tax is cut then I’d do four times as much work, I’d make four times as much money. They’d take less tax but they’d make more from me. But they cut their own throat. They do it all over the show, every place you look in Britain it’s the same. I mean, it makes me sick sometimes. It’s like, one big Coronation Street. And that’s Britain. Now in America, there’s more people. And there’s more good people, there’s more bad people. But just generally there’s more of everything. So more things get heard, more things get done and, you know, it really pays.”
